Someone gave me a curious cartridge today. someone had given him a handfull of old cartridges and shotgun shells, and I have not seen or heard of this one.

If I had to guess, it looks like a .35 calibre version of a 30 carbine type of cartridge, and the head dia is the same as .30 remington. the headstamp is REM-UMC and 351 SLR

There was 1 rifle ever chambered for the 351 SLR, and that was the 1907 Wincester self loader.
There were 5 cartridges in the SLR line, the 32 SLR & 35 SLR were both chambered for the 1905 Winchester self loader. Next came the 351 SLR in 1907, and than came the 401 SLR for/in the 1910 Winchester. All of the above rifles are pure blowback design, and have a massive weight in the forend that is attached to the bolt.
The last of the line, based on the 32 SLR case is, you guessed it, the 30 Carbine (prototype 30 carbine cases were head stamped 30 SLR).

Power wise, the 351 is between the 357 Mag and 357 Max when fired out of a rifle. Factory loads pushed a 180gr bullet to (a claimed) 1850fps

It is amazing that after all that the cartridge isn't an overwhelming commercial sucess and still in wide use today?

Thanks for the info. My friend has a handfull of these and we were very curious what they were.

That cartridge was a star in one of the "boy's books" series of the 1940's....the "Ken Ward" books. One of the books which first got me interested in exploring and more remote hunting was "Ken Ward in the Jungle" which was a tale of him, his brother, and I think another lad, exploring by canoe a river in Mexico which had never been mapped. Involved a memorable scene in which he was treed by a band of the aggressive branch of the peccary family and scared them off with his .351 Remington.

Anyway, definitely a classic cartridge once held in some esteem by Americans. Was also used a bit by various correctional institutions in the guard towers.

This was a favorite in pre-war LEO circles as it could penetrate car doors with the FMJ loadings. The Texas sheriff who killed Bonnie & Clyde used one in that ambush.

quote:

Originally posted by csam:
It is amazing that after all that the cartridge isn't an overwhelming commercial sucess and still in wide use today?

csam

From this shooter's perspective, it's NOT amazing that the Winchester SL cartridges are dead and forgotten. They are ballistically puny by anyone's definition. The biggest and most powerful (401 WSL) is barely suitable for deer hunting and, even then, only at short range. They may have been revoluntionary in their day but this is 2006, not 1906. JMHO

Ray

quote:

Originally posted by Cheechako:
From this shooter's perspective, it's NOT amazing that the Winchester SL cartridges are dead and forgotten. They are ballistically puny by anyone's definition. The biggest and most powerful (401 WSL) is barely suitable for deer hunting and, even then, only at short range.

Unless you are in the Maine woods, or somewhere similar, like hunting the little blacktail along the Oregon Coast..... They sure don't have any surplus power, but the .351 was once moderately popular for those uses. And as far as I can tell, the deer of 2006 aren't any bigger or tougher than those of the early 1900's. Getting up close and making the shot will still get the job done.

True, like everyone else I usually use somewhat more powerfull cartridges these days, even for the blacktail, but I've eaten a lot of venison that was shot with the .32-20 at up to 90 yards or so...and the .351 sure beats that .32 for power. Along with you, I'm not surprised it died out, but I'm sorry it did. I liked it better when folks HAD to learn how to HUNT rather than blasting away with the new 2006 Super-Dooper-Hot-Shot from any distance they could see a deer.


[/QUOTE]They may have been revoluntionary in their day but this is 2006, not 1906. [/QUOTE]

More's the pity, eh?

I was hoping Ruger would make a revolver in 351 Win, just like they did with the 30M1 cartridge.

Canuck

Everything you said

My idea of when a cartridge becomes obsolete is to ask myself a question. "If I was building a new rifle, would I chamber it for _____?" In the case of the Winchester SL cartridges I would have to say No. On the other hand, if I found an old Winchester rifle for sale and it was chambered for one of the cartridges, would I buy it? You bet I would.

Ray

I got one for sale .351 missing mag and forend is split Email if interested.

quote:

Originally posted by Jack Sullivan:
I got one for sale .351 missing mag and forend is split Email if interested.

Jack

Do you have a photo? Price? Split forend is no problem but are magazines available somewhere? Bigger problem - can a US citizen purchase a rifle from someone in Canada??

Ray

quote:

Originally posted by Cheechako:
Canuck

My idea of when a cartridge becomes obsolete is to ask myself a question. "If I was building a new rifle, would I chamber it for _____?" In the case of the Winchester SL cartridges I would have to say No. On the other hand, if I found an old Winchester rifle for sale and it was chambered for one of the cartridges, would I buy it? You bet I would.

Ray

Yeh, all of that for sure. Now that I've had all the new gadgets as they came out for the last 60 or so years, I find myself building my new rifles in the efficient, mid-capacity cases, or the moderate-to-big sized old rimmed cases, and finding my way back to lots of .30 and UP lever guns (.32, .33, .34, .35, .375, .40, 427, and .45 at the moment), and some classic older bolt rifles.


But, I too also like the old Winchester series of semi-autos, the Remington & Colt slide-actions, and even such odd-balls as the Standard-brand combo semi-auto/pump in the Remington rounds.

Guess I find that the "hunting" part of going hunting more fun than just the shooting part. And it's fun (for me) to do it with some of the older, lower-powered stuff in the working man's guns of the first half of the 20th Century. Fact is, I used to do a lot of it in the area between your house and all the way down to the Winchesters & Chiricahuas (never can spell that right), out of Benson.

Best wishes, y'all,

AC

Just in case anyone is wondering, the American Rifleman of December, 1966 (Page 42), lists the ballistics of the .351 Winchester SL as a 180 gr. bullet at 1,856 fps from the 20" barrel of the Model 1907 Winchester rifle, for 1,378 foot-pounds of kinetic energy.

If correct, that is very close to the actual performance of the 170 gr. bullets of the day from a 20" barreled 30-30 lever gun, but with a 10 grain heavier bullet....and, of course semi-auto action and either 5 or 10 round detachable box magazines.

well the 351slr is a decent cartridge mostly used by gaurds and i know of a few that still have a few rifles in stock but they switched to more modern rifles now.Tailgunner i personally own the 4 most common auto loading win rifles but what what model did they use the 30slr as it would be nice to complete the collection.csam are you collecting the cases if so email me and i might have proper headstamped brass